Good, clean fun with Brian Regan

Brian Regan isn’t known as a political comedian – and don’t worry, he’s not giving up his rants about Pop-Tarts, pirates or himself to become a pundit.

Chad Berndtson

Brian Regan isn’t known as a political comedian – and don’t worry, he’s not giving up his rants about Pop-Tarts, pirates or himself to become a pundit. But that doesn’t mean he’s above showing off his impersonation of columnist and Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington.

“Ah, man, it’s raining outside. George Bush is a reason for all the rain outside,” says Regan, accurately capturing both Huffington’s heavy Greek accent and even heavier liberal bent. “The reason you stubbed your toe is because of the policies of George Bush. That is why you stubbed your toe.”

Returning to his “Brian” voice, he adds that his aping of Huffington is just his “little foray into politics.”

“I’m dipping my big toe in, you might say,” he said.

And the reason he’s doing it, is because Regan doesn’t like being pigeonholed, even though he acknowledges his audience has a certain level of familiarity with some of this material.

“I keep trying to keep my comedy antenna up, and, hopefully, something will beam its way into my comedy brain,” he said. “This world is a trip, as you probably know.”

Regan says he strives to keep his comedy “double barrel.” It’s been a year and a half since his last DVD and Comedy Central special – another may be in the works, though he’s noncommittal – and he’s looking to avoid having an audience that can anticipate his every move.

“I guess it would be easy to have your act gravitate a certain way. I’ve always tried to resist that,” he said. “As soon as I feel that, I actively start writing away from that. Hopefully, people will see different shades and different opinions; it’s important to switch it up a tad.”

Regan’s nickname, Mr. Clean – or “the clean thing,” as he puts it – signifies his avoidance of uttering profanity streaks a mile long, like his peers. Does he mind the description, so often used?

“I talk to my manager all the time about this, and he said the only way to get around it is start cursing like crazy,” he said. “Otherwise, get used to it. It’s just a different way of looking at things. It’s kind of a weird thing. It’s not like I shout, ‘Who wants to hear some cleaaaaannn commmedddy?’"

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